By Gwen O’Toole

Eight Asian visitor bureaus have united to boost the continent’s market share in the growing global business events industry by relaunching the Asian Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus (AACVB).

The Association announced yesterday (May 27) at a press gathering held at IMEX in Frankfurt that a new agenda will be implemented and driven by eight convention and visitor bureaus (CVBs) from China, Hong Kong, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand .

“At least eight convention and visitor bureaus will put cooperation ahead of competition and raise the level of sophistication of the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibition sectors in Asia,” said AACVB Chairperson, Suprabha Moleeratanond of the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau. “Our aim is to increase competitiveness and drive new MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions) business to our region.”

Suprabha announced that the AACVB’s eight voting members had signed up for an aggressive new agenda that will attract intra-regional conventions, especially those that can be rotated among AACVB members.

“We aim to position Asia as the world’s ideal convention destination, and increase Asia ‘s market share of the global convention market,” she added.

The Association will help drive more MICE traffic to the Asian region through the establishment of a shared data bank among member CVBs.